There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world,
Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of
Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a
Civilization gone with the wind...
from the movie Gone With The Wind
this nation cannot exist, half slave half free
He was amid wounds.
The mob of men was bleeding. Because of the tattered soldier's question he now felt that his shame
could be viewed. He was continually casting sidelong glances to see if the men were contemplating the
letters of guilt he felt burned into his brow. At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious
way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a
wound, a red badge of courage.
from The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
John Browns Body
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
But his soul goes marching on.
When Johnny comes marching home again,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
We'll give him a hearty welcome then,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The men will cheer, the boys will shout,
The ladies they will all turn out,
And we'll all feel gay When Johnny comes
marching home.
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
His soul goes marching on.
The old church bells will peal with joy,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
To welcome home our darling boy,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The village lads and lassies say
With roses they will strew the way,
And we'll all feel gay When Johnny comes
marching home.
He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord,
He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord,
He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord,
His soul goes marching on.
John Brown died that the slaves might be free,
John Brown died that the slaves might be free,
John Brown died that the slaves might be free,
His soul goes marching on.
64
In the early 1800’s, particularly in the 1830’s, the United States experienced a wave of
religious revivals called the 2nd Great Awakening. In the North, the awakening quickly
transformed itself into a reform movement, and the “wedding” between the religious revival
and social reform became known as the Benevolent Empire.
One result of this trend was a school of writers called the transcendentalists, who were
connected with the city of Concord, just west of Boston. Concord was the first rural artist's
colony, and the first place to offer a spiritual and cultural alternative to American
materialism. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are most closely associated
with the town, but the town also attracted the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, the feminist
writer Margaret Fuller, the educator and Bronson Alcott. (father of novelist Louisa May
Alcott) A number of Transcendentalists were abolitionists.
Early white abolitionists included William Lloyd Garrison (The Liberator) and Harriet
Beecher Stowe. Freed slaves such as Frederick Douglass (The North Star) and Harriet
Tubman (Underground Railroad) became active in the movement.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was the most
popular American book of the 19th century. Its passionate appeal for an
end to slavery in the United States inflamed the debate that, within a
decade, led to the Civil War.
Uncle Tom, the slave and central character, is a martyr who
labors to convert his kind master, St. Clare, prays for St. Clare's soul as
he dies, and is killed defending slave women. Slavery is depicted as evil because it divides
families and destroys normal parental love. The most touching scenes show an agonized slave
mother unable to help her screaming child and a father sold away from his family.
Stowe's novel was not originally intended as an attack on the South; Stowe liked
southerners, and portrayed them kindly. Southern slave owners are good masters and treat
Tom well. St. Clare personally abhors slavery and intends to free all of his slaves. The evil
master Simon Legree, on the other hand, is a northerner and the villain.
Frederick Douglass
The most famous black American anti-slavery
leader and orator of the era, Frederick Douglass was born
a slave on a Maryland plantation. It was his good fortune
to be sent to relatively liberal Baltimore as a young man,
where he learned to read and write. Escaping to
Massachusetts in 1838, at age 21, Douglass was helped by
abolitionist editor William Lloyd Garrison and began to
lecture for anti-slavery societies. In 1845, he published
his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.
65
Slavery caused all of this?
Much discussion has occurred through history as to the causes of the Civil War. At the
top of this list is the role of slavery. Did slavery cause the war? Some say no - it was the
variety of economic differences between the North and the South that brought it on - slavery
being just one of those. Of course it did say others - there really was no other issue! This
matter will not be decided for certain except for two very important distinctions. First of all,
though there were many issues that served to divide the North and South, no single issue
brought on so much emotional energy and proved impossible to solve. Second, from the very
beginning with the Declaration of Independence right through the Jackson Presidency in the
1830's, slavery was always put on the backburner in order for the two regions to be able to
compromise on their differences. For whatever reason, from the 1840's on through the 1850's,
it was an issue that would not go away and could not be put into the background.
How ‘bout you do your thing and I’ll do mine...
As the nation developed throughout the early 1800’s, the differences between the
sections (sectionalism) became progressively greater. Inventor Eli Whitney is a good example
of the widening split between the North and South. His invention of interchangeable parts for
gun manufacture eventually would lead to the factory system in the industrializing north,
while his cotton gin made cotton a lucrative proposition in the Deep South. This led to the
entrenchment of “King Cotton,” a cash crop economy firmly invested in the institution of
slavery. The North continued to develop transportation between states (canals, roads,
railroads) and trade relationships with each other, while the South became more and more
dependent on the exportation of cotton and tobacco to England, France and the North.
Interchangeable
parts?
Cotton
Gin?
Homework Assignment #13
1. Discuss the 2nd Great Awakening.
2. Discuss the work of Frederic Douglass.
3. Discuss why Abraham Lincoln said, “So this is the little lady who started to Civil War”
(when speaking to Harriet Beecher Stowe.)
4. What is so unique about Stowe's view of Southerners and slavery?
5. Discuss the difference of opinion as to the role slavery played in the coming of the
Civil War.
6. Discuss how early inventions contributed to the widening gap between the North and South
66
Can’t we just work this out?
The issues that divided the North and South led to a series of compromise attempts, as
new states came into the union and continually changed the voting balance in Congress.
Between 1790 and 1820, the tendency was to bring in new states in alternating fashion (N/S)
until the Union was complete to the Mississippi River. In 1820, Missouri was ready to join the
Union as a slave state, so Henry Clay from Kentucky (The Great Compromiser) worked the
Missouri Compromise.

Missouri came in as a slave state,
Maine came in as a free state, and
the southern boundary of Missouri
(36-30 line) was extended to the
edge of the Louisiana Territory to
separate slave and free areas.
“There are a lot of trees and I have a
lot of rope...”
The Tariffs of 1828 (Tariff of
Abominations) and 1832 led to a crisis for the Union as South Carolina threatened to declare
them null and void (John C. Calhoun - Expressions and Expositions of South Carolina).
Daniel Webster debated in the Senate on the need to preserve the Union (Hayne-Webster
Debates) and Andrew Jackson threatened to use force if South Carolina followed through on
their plans (“there are a lot of trees in S. Carolina and I have a lot of rope…”). Eventually,
Henry Clay negotiated a compromise tariff.
So you thought you got away?
After the War with Mexico (1846-8), the annexation of the Mexican Cession and the
discovery of gold in California in 1848 led to the flood of miners (49ers) to the west. In 1850
California was ready to apply for admission to the Union as a free state, though there was no
slave area ready to balance out Congress. Henry Clay again came to the rescue, with the
Compromise of 1850. This included:

a stronger Fugitive Slave Law to satisfy the South, allowing slave owners more power in
attempting to reclaim escaped slaves.

For the rest of the Mexican Cession (New Mexico and Utah territories), the concept of
popular sovereignty was introduced by Stephen Douglass (Illinois). This would allow the
people of the territory to choose slave or free status.
67
Why don't you all just decide?
In 1854, the Kansas- Nebraska Act would
apply this concept to the territories of
Kansas and Nebraska when they applied for
statehood. This led to a tremendous wave of
both pro and anti-slave settlers into Kansas
and increased violence as they tried to decide
their fate (Bleeding Kansas).
Roger?
Are you serious,
In 1857, the Dred Scott case was decided in the Supreme
Court. Dred Scott was slave from Missouri who moved to Illinois
with his master and became free. When they moved back to
Missouri he was re-enslaved and appealed to the Supreme Court
for his freedom as a citizen. Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote that
his rights as a citizen were secondary to his master’s right to own
private property, since the public did not believe that blacks were
equal to whites. In 1859, the white abolitionist John Brown led a
raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, in an attempt to provoke a slave revolt in
Virginia. He was caught, tried for treason and murder, and hung. He thus became a martyr
for the abolition cause (John Brown’s body).
Anybody but that guy!
In 1860, the attempts at compromise came apart with the election of the
first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had debated
Stephen Douglas throughout Illinois running for the Senate in 1858.
These debates had brought the issue of slavery to the forefront and even
though Douglas won in 1858, the slave issue would come back to haunt
him when he opposed Lincoln for president in 1860. The Democratic
Party divided into factions over the issue and ran several candidates, splitting the vote. This
insured Lincoln’s victory.
Homework Assignment #14
1. Discuss the Missouri Compromise
2. Discuss what led to the famous Webster Senate debates.
3. Discuss the three provisions Compromise of 1850.
4. Discuss the Kansas-Nebraska Act
5. Discuss the Dred Scott case.
6. Discuss the John Brown rebellion and case.
7. Discuss the Election of 1860.
68
A new beginning?

With the election of Abraham Lincoln, South Carolina saw no option but to secede from
the Union. Followed immediately by six more states in the Deep South, the
Confederate States of America was formed with Jefferson Davis as President. The
lame-duck president, James Buchanon, did nothing to stop this action.
Border States
Upper South
Deep South

The Upper South states (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas) were
waiting for the beginning of conflict before deciding what to do. Senator John
Crittenden attempted a compromise by extending the Missouri Compromise line to the
Pacific. (Crittenden Compromise) With the opening of conflict at Fort Sumter
(Charleston, South Carolina) they were forced to choose and joined the Confederacy.

The border states (Slave states – Missouri, Kentucky, “West Virginia,” and Maryland)
became Lincoln’s immediate concern. He sent troops in to guarantee they would all
stay in the Union. Early battles in Missouri, Kentucky and the western portion of
Virginia (West Virginia quickly becomes a state) kept the border states in the Union.
Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus to jail southern sympathizers in Maryland.
Missouri, Kentucky and the new state of West Virginia (early battles in northwest Virginia led
to the splitting away of West Virginia and immediate statehood) provided a buffer between the
Ohio/Mississippi River transportation system and the South. This was important to
guarantee the ability of the North to transport both supplies and troops east and west.
Additionally, Washington D.C. was literally south of the state of Maryland and was in danger
of being in the South if Maryland joined the Confederacy. Lincoln suspended the writ of
habeas corpus and threw any southern sympathizers in jail to guarantee Maryland stayed
put.
69
What would Las Vegas say about this?
The North and South each had distinct advantages and disadvantages in fighting the war.
The North had:
 the lion's share of industrial capability (steel and textiles),

the larger population (the South was unable to use their slaves to fight),

better transportation (railroads, canals, roads),
70

a central government (President Lincoln, an established draft, banks),

an established army and navy, and

most of the countries grain and food production.
The South had:
 the better generals (Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson),
 the better cause (fighting for their personal freedom),
 the ability to fight a defensive war, and
 the familiarity of the land as most battles were fought in the South.
Though the South had King Cotton, it was only effective if they could get their crops to
England and purchase war materials and food from the British. A naval blockade by the
Union will greatly restrict this.
71
X’s and O’s
General war strategy will have a lot to do with each side's success throughout the war.

The South was fighting a defensive war, so they were able to use their better generals,
soldiers and strategy to achieve many victories early in the war. They planned to
defend their land and test the resolve of the North.

The North strove to control the Mississippi River, blockade the southern ports and take
the southern capital of Richmond. (Anaconda Plan)
As the war went longer and longer and became a war of attrition and production, the
industrial and population advantages of the North began to wear down the South and
eventually led to their demise.
Homework Assignment #15
1. Discuss the response of the Deep South to the Election of 1860
2. Discuss the response of the Upper South to secession.
3. Why were the border states so important?
4. How did Lincoln keep the border states in the North?
5. Discuss the advantages of the North.
6. Discuss the advantages of the South
7. Discuss the general war strategy of the sides in the war.
72
1st Bull Run/Manassas
Fort Sumter
73
Farragut and New Orleans
Forts Henry and Donelson
Unconditional Surrender
U.S. Grant
Shiloh
Vicksburg
Peninsular Campaign
George McClellan
Lee’s defense of Richmond
Jackson’s Valley Campaign
2nd Bull Run/Manassas
Antietam
74
Grant and Vicksburg
Murfreesboro (Stone River)
Chicamagua
Chatanooga
Frederickburg
Chancellorsville
Gettysburg
75
Sherman - Atlanta and Savannah
March to the Sea
Grant - Wilderness Campaign
Spotsylvania
Cold Harbor
Richmond
76
Sherman’s Carolina Campaign
Bentonville
Lincoln Assassination
Appomattox Courthouse
77
The reality of war hits – people die.
Mathew Brady, along with Alexander Gardner and Timothy
O’Sullivan, used the camera as a means of recording a
history of the Civil War. The ultimate in Realist literature,
there was no hiding the brutality and death in war. Brady
eventually sold his pictures to the U.S. government and the
Library of Congress.
O’Sullivan – Gettysburg
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address,
given November 19, 1863 on the battlefield near Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, USA
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this
continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether that nation, or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated. . . can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here
gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should
do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we cannot hallow this
ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our
poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the
great task remaining before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to
that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . . that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain. . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom. . . and that government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . .
shall not perish from the earth.
78
Reconstruction
Reconstruction, the period following the Civil War, lasted from 1865 to 1877. The term
refers to the process the government used to readmit the defeated southern states to the
Union. Complicating the process was the different ideas about reconstruction held by
Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republicans in Congress.

Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction called more lenient treatment of the Confederate
states. The government would pardon all Confederates, except high ranking officials,
who would take an oath of allegiance to the Union. Only the passage of the 13th
amendment abolishing slavery would be expected.

The Radical Republicans in Congress felt Lincoln’s plan was too lenient and that they
were responsible for implementing reconstruction. They passed the Wade-Davis Bill in
1864, which was much tougher on the South.
So this is the guy before Bill Clinton!
After the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865, Andrew Johnson took over as
President. In practice he was not as tough on the South as Radical Republicans wanted.
Johnson pardoned more than 13,000 former Confederates because he believed that “white men
alone should manage the South.” He did not believe in the extension of the vote to black men.
Now we’re in charge!
The Radical Republicans in Congress passed two laws in 1866 to remedy weaknesses in
Johnson’s plan. They voted to extend and enlarge the Freedmen’s Bureau, which assisted
freed slaves by setting up hospitals, schools, and training institutes. They also passed the
Civil Rights Act of 1866, which gave African-Americans citizenship and forbade states from
passing discriminatory laws against blacks (Black Codes). Johnson shocked everybody when
he vetoed both bills as unconstitutional.
The Reconstruction Act of 1867 set up Congressional Reconstruction. The Congress
refused to recognize all of the states who had been readmitted under Lincoln’s and Johnson’s
plans, except for Tennessee who had ratified the 14th Amendment. The other ten states were
divided into 5 military districts, each headed by a Union general. The act required the states
to grant suffrage to African American men and passage of the 14th Amendment. Johnson
vetoed the bill, but was overridden. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified to protect the
new gains made for black suffrage.
In 1867, Congress went after President Johnson by impeaching him and put on trial in
1868. The Senate fell just one vote short of the 2/3 majority needed for conviction.
79
Homework Assignment # 16
1. Discuss Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction.
2. Discuss the actions of Andrew Johnson concerning Reconstruction.
3. Discuss the Radical Republicans reaction to the weaknesses in Johnson’s plan.
a
b.
4. Discuss Congressional Reconstruction.
5. Discuss the 14th Amendment.
6. Discuss the 15th Amendment.
7. What did the Congress attempt to do to President Johnson? Did it work?
Homework Assignment #17 - Skills Worksheet - (target words - proportion/ratio, range, mean)
1. Calculate the resource ratio (proportion) of Union to Confederacy for: (Show work)
a. workers
b. factories
c. value of production
d. railroad tracks
2. Which of these factor comparisons has the largest range? (Show work)
3. What is the mean ratio of the above factors?
(Show work)
4. What advantages for the Union would result due to these factors?
5. What would these factors tend to tell you about the economies of the Union and
Confederacy?
80
The Price in Blood - Casualties in the Civil War
At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the toll reached
700,000. The number that is most often quoted is 620,000. At any rate, these casualties exceed
the nation's loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam.
The Union armies had from 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men. Their losses, by the best
estimates:
Battle deaths: 110,070
Disease, etc.: 250,152
Total
360,222
The Confederate strength, known less accurately because of missing records, was from
750,000 to 1,250,000. Its estimated losses:
Battle deaths: 94,000
Disease, etc.: 164,000
Total
258,000
The leading authority on casualties of the war, Thomas L. Livermore, admitting the
handicap of poor records in some cases, studied 48 of the war's battles and concluded:
Of every 1,000 Federals in battle, 112 were wounded.
Deaths in Prison
24,866
Of every 1,000 Confederates, 150 were hit.
Drowning
4,944
In addition to its dead and wounded from battle and disease, the
Accidental deaths 4,144
Union listed:
Murdered
520
Suicides
391
Deaths in American Wars
Sunstroke
313
Civil War
618,000
Military executions 267
World War II
405,000
Killed after capture 104
World War I
112,000
Executed by enemy 64
Vietnam War
58,000
Unclassified
14,155
Korean War
54,000
Mexican War
13,000
Revolution
4,000
Spanish-American
2,000
War
War of 1812
2,000
Using both the above reading and charts, answer the following questions.
6. How many Americans were killed in the Civil War?
7. What was the total number of Americans killed in all American wars combined?
8. Civil War deaths make up what percentage of the total? (show work)
81
9. What is the ratio of soldiers (Union and Confederate) who died of disease compared to those
who died in battle? (show work)
10. In addition to those deaths from battle and disease, the Union listed additional deaths
from:
11. Of those additional causes, the largest was from:
12. What percentage was the above (#11) of the total deaths reported by the Union (all
causes)? (show work)
Read the following selection and answer the questions.
Medical Care, Battle Wounds, and Disease
The Civil War was fought, claimed the Union army surgeon general, "at the end of the medical
Middle Ages." Little was known about what caused disease, how to stop it from spreading, or how to
cure it. Surgical techniques ranged from the barbaric to the barely competent.
A Civil War soldier's chances of not surviving the war was about one in four. These fallen men
were cared for by a woefully underqualifled, understaffed, and undersupplied medical corps. Working
against incredible odds, however, the medical corps increased in size, improved its techniques, and
gained a greater understanding of medicine and disease every year the war was fought.
During the period just before the Civil War, a physician received minimal training. Nearly all the
older doctors served as apprentices in lieu of formal education. Even those who had attended one of the
few medical schools were poorly trained. In Europe, four-year medical schools were common,
laboratory training was widespread, and a greater understanding of disease and infection existed. The
average medical student in the United States, on the other hand, trained for two years or less, received
practically no clinical experience, and was given virtually no laboratory instruction. Harvard
University, for instance, did not own a single stethoscope or microscope until after the war.
When the war began, the Federal army had a total of about 98 medical officers, the Confederacy
just 24. By 1865, some 13,000 Union doctors had served in the field and in the hospitals; in the
Confederacy, about 4,000 medical officers and an unknown number of volunteers treated war
casualties. in both the North and South, these men were assisted by thousands of women who donated
their time and energy to help the wounded. It is estimated that more than 4,000 women served as
nurses in Union hospitals; Confederate women contributed much to the effort as well.
Although Civil War doctors were commonly referred to as "butchers" by their patients and the
press, they managed to treat more than 10 million cases of injury and illness in just 48 months and
most did it with as much compassion and competency as possible. Poet Walt Whitman, who served as a
volunteer in Union army hospitals, had great respect for the hardworking physicians, claiming that
"All but a few are excellent men...
Approximately 620,000 men-360,000 Northerners and 260,000 Southerners-died in the four-year
conflict, a figure that tops the total fatalities of all other wars in which America has fought. Of these
numbers, approximately 110,000 Union and 94,000 Confederate men died of wounds received in battle.
Every effort was made to treat wounded men within 48 hours; most primary care was administered at
field hospitals located far behind the front lines. Those who survived were then transported by
unreliable and overcrowded ambulances-two-wheeled carts or four-wheeled wagons-to army hospitals
located in nearby cities and towns.
The most common Civil War small arms ammunition was the dreadful minnie ball, which tore an
enormous wound on impact: it was so heavy that an abdominal or head wound was almost always
fatal, and a hit to an extremity usually shattered any bone encountered. In addition, bullets carried
82
dirt and germs into the wound that often caused infection.
Of the approximately 175,000 wounds to the extremities received among Federal troops, about
30,000 led to amputation; roughly the same proportion occurred in the Confederacy. One witness
described a common surgeon's tent this way: "Tables about breast high had been erected upon which
the screaming victims were having legs and arms cut off. The surgeons and their assistants, stripped
to the waist and bespattered with blood, stood around, some holding the poor fellows while others,
armed with long, bloody knives and saws, cut and sawed away with frightful rapidity, throwing the
mangled limbs on a pile nearby as soon as removed."
Contrary to popular myth, most amputees did not experience the surgery without anesthetic.
Ample doses of chloroform were administered beforehand; the screams heard were usually from
soldiers just informed that they would lose a limb or who were witness to the plight of other soldiers
under the knife.
Those who survived their wounds and surgeries still had another hurdle, however: the high risk
of infection. While most surgeons were aware of a relationship between cleanliness and low infection
rates, they did not know how to sterilize their equipment. Due to a frequent shortage of water,
surgeons often went days without washing their hands or instruments, thereby passing germs from
one patient to another as he treated them. The resulting vicious infections, commonly known as
"surgical fevers," are believed to have been caused largely by Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus
pyogenes, bacterial cells which generate pus, destroy tissue, and release deadly toxins into the
bloodstream. Gangrene, the rotting away of flesh caused by the obstruction of blood flow, was also
common after surgery. Despite these fearful odds, nearly 75 percent of the amputees survived.
While the average soldier believed the bullet was his most nefarious foe, disease was the biggest
killer of the war. Of the Federal dead, roughly three out of five died of disease, and of the Confederate,
perhaps two out of three. One of the reasons for the high rates of disease was the slipshod recruiting
process that allowed under- or over-age men and those in noticeably poor health to join the armies on
both sides, especially in the first year of the war. In fact, by late 1862, some 200,000 recruits originally
accepted for service were judged physically unfit and discharged, either because they had fallen ill or
because a routine examination revealed their frail condition.
About half of the deaths from disease during the Civil War were caused by intestinal disorders,
mainly typhoid fever, diarrhea, and dysentery. The remainder died from pneumonia and tuberculosis.
Camps populated by young soldiers who had never before been exposed to a large variety of common
contagious diseases were plagued by outbreaks of measles, chickenpox, mumps, and whooping cough.
The culprit in most cases of wartime illness, however, was the shocking filth of the army camp
itself. An inspector in late 1861 found most Federal camps 'littered with refuse, food, and other
rubbish, sometimes in an offensive state of decomposition; slops deposited in pits within the camp
limits or thrown out of broadcast; heaps of manure and offal close to the camp." As a result, bacteria
and viruses spread through the camp like wildfire. Bowel disorders constituted the soldiers' most
common complaint. The Union army reported that more than 995 out of every 1,000 men eventually
contracted chronic diarrhea or dysentery during the war; the Confederates fared no better.
Typhoid fever was even more devastating. Perhaps one-quarter of noncombat deaths in the
Confederacy resulted from this disease, caused by the consumption of food or water contaminated by
salmonella bacteria. Epidemics of malaria spread through camps located next to stagnant swamps
teeming with anopheles mosquito. Although treatment with quinine reduced fatalities, malaria
nevertheless struck approximately one quarter of all servicemen; the Union army alone reported one
million cases of it during the course of the war. Poor diet and exposure to the elements only added to
the burden. A simple cold often developed into pneumonia, which was the third leading killer disease of
the war, after typhoid and dysentery.
83
Throughout the war, both the South and the North struggled to improve the level of medical
care given to their men. In many ways, their efforts assisted in the birth of modern medicine in the
United States. More complete records on medical and surgical activities were kept during the war than
ever before, doctors became more adept at surgery and at the use of anesthesia, and perhaps most
importantly, a greater understanding of the relationship between cleanliness, diet, and disease was
gained not only by the medical establishment but by the public at large. Another important advance
took place in the field of nursing, where respect for the role of women in medicine rose considerably
among both doctors and patients.
Source: The Civil War Society's "Encyclopedia of the Civil War"
13. What did the author mean when he used the term, "at the end of the medical Middle
Ages?"
14. What type of training did doctors receive just before the Civil War?
15. What impact did the ammunition used in the war have on the types of injuries?
16. The above passage describes the surgeon's tent in what way?
17. What role did infection play in the patients recovery?
18. If battle wounds were not the biggest killer of soldier, what was? Explain your answer.
19. What was the main culprit of this problem? Explain.
84